NIGHTMARE
by azurefang
Summary: I thought I would write a short story about Damon and Elena. Damon has a crazy dream. I may write more of these short stories. Damon and Elena
1. Chapter 1

NIGHTMARE

Disclainer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

 _A/N I thought I would write a short story about Damon and Elena, especially about his dream. Vampires in deep sleep usually do not dream. But often, while in light sleep, they do._

He was supposed to meet Elena at the big public library. He parked his old Chevy convertible in the paved lot in front of the building, locked the vehicle, and walked to the front door. Indoors, the air was cool, the lighting subdued and the air smelled of books old and new. He liked that smell.

His wife Elena was supposed to be in the non-fiction section doing some research. She was in medical school and often did searches in the library despite all the information she could get on the Internet. Damon knew she would be on the second floor, so he headed for the stairs, which were closer than the elevator.

As he trudged up the worn wooden steps, he became aware that the steps were becoming narrower from side to side. That was odd. He reached the second floor, but glimpsed Elena going on up to the third level. He called to her, but not too loudly. This was a library, after all. She didn't seem to hear him.

He lost track of her when she reached the landing, but he knew she had turned to the left. He continued upward, his left hand on the wooden railing, polished smooth by years of hands passing along it. A solid wall was on his right. The width of the steps decreased after the landing until they were only six inches wide. He looked for Elena ahead of him and spotted her quite a distance away. To get to her, he had to continue on the steps that were fast disappearing.

He looked down to the main floor three levels below him, and then he glanced over at Elena. He had no choice but to climb over the railing and use his hands to progress to the other side. His legs dangled in open space. He didn't look down again. Had Elena done this? She must have. Weird!

Worried that the railing might collapse under his weight, he moved carefully until he saw that the new steps were there again and increasing in size. With caution and relief, he eased over the railing to the steps that were leading downward. Elena hadn't stopped on the third level, but went on down the steps, way ahead of Damon. He called out to her, but she didn't hear him or she ignored him. Muttering a curse, he followed.

He was partway down the stairs when he looked ahead and saw that her stairway had turned into an escalator running down beside the stairs. He hurried downward, but suddenly came to a landing and had to turn right. He considered jumping over to the escalator, but Elena had already stepped off and was walking toward the front door.

In front of Damon now was an exit door. He opened it and stepped out into the wooded grounds. He followed the paved walkway around toward the front and found himself in the big parking lot. Where was his car? He was sure he had parked it beside one of the tall light poles, but he didn't see it now. Had it been stolen, or was he looking by the wrong pole.

A young man came from the library and Damon recognized him. "Randy, did you see my wife Elena?"

"Yeah. She said she was going to the stable."

"Stable? What stable?"

"You know. The one around back." Randy pointed toward the corner of the building and then walked away.

Frustrated, Damon turned around and retraced his step back around the building. Sure enough, he spotted low wooden buildings in the trees. He also smell the vague scent of horses. A bit confused, he headed that way. Why would Elena go there? Was she playing some kind of joke on him? He didn't think it was funny. It was strange and a bit scary. None of this made sense.

He arrived by the stables but saw no one about. He spotted Elena riding a white horse off into the trail in the woods. He yelled after her as loudly as he could, but she didn't hear him or she ignored him. There was one horse left, saddled and tied to a fence. Damon went to it and untied the rope. He noticed that the stirrups were adjusted way too short for his legs, so he grabbed the saddle horn to vault up onto the horse's back.

The cinch must have been loose, because the saddle turned sideways and dumped him on the ground. Thankfully, the horse did not bolt and run. Damon angrily adjusted the saddle and jumped up onto the horse's back. When he picked up the reins, he found that they were just light strings. When he used one to turn the horse from the fence, the string broke. With a groan, he dismounted and spent a minute retying the flimsy string. Before mounting, he turned the horse toward the trail.

Wanting to catch up with Elena, he kicked the animal's sides. It sprang forward at a dead run and galloped down the trail. If Damon had wanted to slow it, he could not have done so because pulling on the strings would have just broken them. He wanted the horse to catch up with Elena anyway. He soon spotted her up ahead, her white horse cantering leisurely along.

Then something caught his eye. Something in the tall grass beside the trail and following Elena. When it moved out onto the trail, he could see it was a tiger! A tiger? A huge cat following Elena at a long loping gait!

"Elena! Behind you! Watch out!" he screamed.

"Damon. Damon!" came her voice.

He opened his eyes and was confused for a moment. And then relieved. His wife was beside him there in their bed.

"You were dreaming. It must have been scary."

"It was. A tiger was chasing you," he said, sitting up.

"A tiger? That's weird." She got out of bed in the morning light.

"What is your schedule for today?" he asked, trying to hide a shudder as the fear from the dream persisted.

"I have to attend two lectures. Afterward, I think I'll go to the public library."

 _A/N I will likely write another short story under the "Nightmare" title, so this is not a one-shot. I'll have to think about it._


	2. Chapter 2

NIGHTMARE AFTERMATH

Despite the fact that Damon had only dreamed that a tiger had chased after Elena, he could still see the image in his mind as if it had really happened. It made the hairs on his arms stand up. It had not helped that she really had said that she would be going to the public library. Although he told himself that none of the things he had seen in the dream were true, he later drove to the library and circled around it. One thing he noted was that, as he had truly believed, there was absolutely no riding stable anywhere near the library.

Parking his car, he walked to the front entrance and entered the building. Of good size, it had a second floor reached either by stairs or an elevator. There was no escalator. Of course there wasn't. He had been in the building before and he knew that. And the stairs were normal-looking, no weirdness.

"Can I help you?" the lady at the front desk asked. She looked like she had been there for fifty years, but she was neatly dressed with comfortable shoes. She wore glasses and had curly gray hair. And a welcoming smile.

"I'm just looking around. This place has been here a long time, hasn't it?"

"Oh, absolutely. It's been renovated several times. It's listed as 'historical' you know."

"I didn't know. It has the scent of old books."

"It does. And new ones, of course. We also have books on cassettes and CDs. Are you interested in a particular kind?"

"No. I like a lot of different genres." He found himself asking a "stupid" question. "Was there ever a horse stable around this neighborhood?"

"How did you know?" the lady asked with a surprised smile.

"I think I heard someone mention one," he lied. "How long ago?"

"Oh, it must have been in the 1940s and '50s. There was a traveling circus in town around that time and several of the animals got loose."

"Tigers?"

"Yes. One of them terrorized the horses in the stable. It didn't hurt any of them and it was captured by one of its handlers. There's a picture or two in one of the old newspapers. It's on microfiche. I could get someone to help you find it."

"No, thank you. I wonder how long the stable was near the library."

"Into the 1950s. When I was a girl, my friends and I would rent horses and ride for an hours or so. There were plenty of trails in the woods. When property values went up and more houses were built, the stable closed and never reopened elsewhere. That was a shame."

"Yes, I'm sure. Well, thanks again," Damon said and he headed back toward the front door. The hairs on his arms raised up again. There really had been a stable and a real tiger! How would he have known that? Despite his travels, he had never been in this town during that time period.

He didn't walk to his car. Instead, he took the paved walkway around the building to the rear. There was a small lawn and some mature trees between the library and the next street. Beyond that were houses. And yet, he was sure he could smell horses! He knew the smell of a stable, the horse sweat, horse droppings, damp straw, leather gear for riding, dust and flies. There was no breeze, so the scent was not coming from somewhere else. A chill ran up his spine. Somehow, the stable was there, invisible.

As he walked back around the building to the parking lot, he thought he heard something. What was it? The music of a calliope! The type that one heard when riding a merry-go-round, a carousel. The kind that accompanied a circus with rides. He knew there was no traveling circus in town, because it would have been well-advertised.

He looked at his watch and noted that Elena would be coming from school in a few minutes. He decided that he was going to intercept her and talk her out of going into the library. In just a few minutes, he saw her car pull into the parking lot. She got out of the car, put the strap of her purse over her shoulder and beeped the car lock. She also had a briefcase that he knew contained her laptop computer and papers.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" she said with a grin when she spotted him.

"Sweetheart, don't go into the library today," he said seriously after they exchanged a loving kiss.

"Why? Are you still spooked by that dream?"

"Yes. But it's more than that." He told her about the stable and the circus.

"Now, come on, Damon! That was a long time ago." She could not help laughing.

"I'm serious. I can smell the stable and hear the calliope from the circus. Right here. Right now."

"It's just your imagination left over from the dream. It really spooked you."

"Sniff the air."

She sniffed. "What am I supposed to smell? Cotton candy?"

That she could not smell or hear what he did really frustrated him.

"I don't want you to go into the library today, Elena. Really."

"I have to. I need something for tomorrow and I can't find it on the computer. I'll be fine. Come with me if you want."

Reluctantly, Damon followed his wife into the library.

 _A/N What could possibly happen? Would the dream become real? Maybe. Thanks for reading, guys. And thanks to you all who are reading my other stories._


	3. Chapter 3

(3)

Stairs

Elena walked purposefully to one of the stairways leading up to the second floor. A feeling of dread come over Damon and he stood near the door and eyed the large interior of the building. The first floor ceiling was quite high and there were several stairways. But as he looked, more stairways seemed to appear. Like an optical illusion of stairways, these crisscrossed up and down and sideways. A man walking on one was actually upside down. Did he think he was going upstairs or down? Elena, in fact, was walking sideways, with her head toward a large window. The scene outside the window was on its side.

Damon swore softly to himself and concluded that he must be dreaming again. How could this be, when he had driven to the library and talked to his wife? The craziness of it made his stomach churn.

As he watched, he was stunned to see that Elena had stopped on one landing and was taking her clothes off. She was not just removing her light jacket; she was stripping down to bare skin.

"Elena, stop! Get dressed!" he yelled across the wide space that separated them. Frantic, he dashed for the closest stairway. Finding the ones that connected with where Elena was took time. He was further astonished when he saw that there were other men heading in the same direction and they were now naked and aroused! They reminded Damon of tomcats all heading for a female cat in "heat." But this female was his, not theirs!

He hurried as fast as he could, even jumping over to the next stairs heading in the right direction. He was unaware that he was now upside down. It didn't matter. He overtook another man and pushed him from the steps. Coming within a short distance of Elena, he saw that she had lain down on a table on the landing. It made him angry that she was just putting herself out there for whoever got there first.

Furious, he got there first, took off he jacket and covered her. He worked his arms under her and lifted her up, intent on taking her to a door to the outside.

"Damon. Wake up, honey. You're dreaming again. And put me down." He voice was calm, but persistent, since she did not want to frighten him.

Damon's world suddenly came into focus. He was in their apartment and he had Elena in his arms. It appeared that she had been lying on the sofa, and he had picked her up.

"Set me down, please," she said, and he set her on her feet. She was not naked, but was dressed in the clothes she had been wearing to the library.

"How did you get here?" he asked, bewildered and alarmed.

"I drove home after I left the library. Then I thought I'd take a nap while I waited for you to come home. Where have you been?"

"I was at the library. I think." He looked at his watch and could not figure out where a couple of hours had gone to. He felt shaky and sat down on the sofa. "What is wrong with me?"

"I don't know," his wife said, sitting down beside him and rubbing his back. "Has this ever happened before?"

"I really don't know. I feel like I don't know what is real anymore. Are we really here?"

"Yes. Honey, we are really here. You and I. Do you suppose you should see someone? A doctor?"

"A shrink, you mean. You think I'm going crazy?" he asked indignantly, even though he wondered the same thing.

"I suppose some one with powers could be casting a spell on you. Or you are having some sort of premonition."

"I don't even remember driving home. I was in the library and I picked you up." He didn't say she had been naked.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you pick me up? Had I fallen?"

"No. You laid down on a table and wouldn't get up. I wanted to get you out of there. I think it's the library that's affecting me."

"How can that be? And what about the riding stable? That isn't in the library."

Damon leaned back in the sofa and ran his fingers through his dark hair.

"Did we talk outside the library before you went inside?"

"Yes. You asked me if I smelled the stable or heard a calliope. Which I did not."

"So, things were real at that time. Then I followed you into the library and everything went weird. Maybe I never even talked to the librarian who told me about the stable."

"Do you want to go back there and see how it affects you? We can go together. I can keep hold of you so we don't get separated."

"I think I want a good stiff drink before we do that," Damon said, and he got up and headed for the liquor cart. In a moment, he swallowed the liquid down.

"But really, do you want to go back?"

"I don't, but I guess I should. We should. That worries me, though, because you get away from me there."

"I'll stay by your side. I promise."

In a few minutes, the two of them went in his old car to the parking lot of the library. Evening was coming by this time for the sun had just set. They stood there as the breeze picked up, coming from the west. Damon listened. He could hear the calliope!

"Do you hear anything?" he asked his wife.

Elena listened to the rustling of leaves on the trees and the few that blew about their shoes. She nodded. "I do. I think I hear a calliope! Or the music of a merry-go-round."

Damon exhaled with relief. He had not even realized that he had been holding his breath.

"The wind direction has changed," he said. "That is why we can hear it now."

"There must be a carnival out west of town. You know, I think I did notice a poster of it somewhere. Do you want to go check it out?"

"No. I want to step into the library." He held out his arm and Elena hooked hers around his. Even when they came to the big front door and he pulled it open, she did not let go. Inside, the normal aroma came to them and high ceiling lights lit the place. Several people were walking around or standing at the computers that listed books and their locations. One lady was talking to the woman at the checkout desk.

Damon stopped just inside the door and studied the place. There were no weird stairways or escalators.

"It looks normal now," he said and he turned to Elena. She was not there! She had let go of his arm and moved away. Panicked, he swept the place with his eyes, but he could not see her. He knew she could have moved between the tall shelves of books, but somehow he knew she was not there at all.

"Don't panic," he told himself and he returned to the front door. He forced himself to step outside and to the walkway. The wind still blew about and he could hear the music. At least that was real. Or was it?

 _A/N Confusion. Confusion. Will Damon and Elena figure out what is going on? Thanks for reading, everyone._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

They followed the sound of music until they came to the ornate carousel. It was in the process of going round and round, quite a few riders perched on the various horses that moved up and down. Damon bought two tickets to ride, and then they waited for the machine to slow and stop. Although there were the usual steeds painted black or brown or gray, there were also others painted in pinto patterns, golden palominos and also a spotted appaloosa.

In a minute, Elena chose a brown and white pinto, while Damon stepped up to the appaloosa. The two horses were side by side, with the pinto toward the inside and Damon's mount on the outside. His horse was slightly larger that his wife's. He grinned at her while they waited for other riders to get on board. Some were small children with a parent standing beside them to be sure they didn't slip off.

Soon, the carousel began to move, slowly at first. The painted horses went up or down, depending on where each center pole had stopped. Damon neither picked up the leather reins nor rested his feet on the metal "stirrups," for they were too short for his legs which dangled loosely. One of his hands rested loosely around the pole.

Elena, on the other hand, held the reins and placed her shoes on the foot rests. She grinned like a silly child as the carousel picked up speed and the music blasted from the ride's control center. The man running the machine stood next to the center and watched for any problems, like a kid falling off, especially if on one of the outer horses. The riders whizzed past him time and again.

Damon knew when the situation changed. He felt it. A shiver ran through him as he realized the painted horse under him was now alive. The big metal pole disappeared and he grabbed the reins. He glanced at Elena, and sure enough, her pinto horse was now real as well. She looked at him with alarm and he knew that she knew they were in weirdness again.

The appaloosa horse was muscled and quivered. It snorted and turned toward the outside. There were no people anywhere around now and despite Damon's attempt to control the animal, it leaped off the machine's platform to the ground.

"Wait for me, Damon! This horse if not paying attention to me!" Elena had ridden horses before, but was not a really accomplished horsewoman. She held the reins and found real stirrups for her feet, but the saddle was basically flat, so there was nothing to hold onto. Her horse followed Damon's as they made a dash for a nearby field. In fact, the pinto pulled even with the appaloosa and then moved ahead.

Once out in the tall grass and weeds, the horses stopped of their own accord. Damon's horse stopped a few feet behind the pinto, raised his head as if to sniff the air. Damon was further aware of the strength of the animal under him and realized that the horse was a stallion. In addition, Elena's horse was a female, a mare, and giving a subtle signal to the male.

"Elena! Get off your horse! Right now! Off!"

Elena glanced back at him and his horse and she saw the problem. She quickly dismounted, although she held onto the reins so her horse would not run off. She saw Damon step off his own mount and also keep one rein in hand. In a moment, the stallion was close behind the mare. He reared up and came down in the breeding position.

"Well, who would have thought two carousel horses would have sex in mind?" Damon muttered. He was relieved that Elena had dismounted so quickly, because he had had no control over the stallion, and Elena would have been hurt by the single-minded animal.

"They've been side by side for quite a while and couldn't do anything about it," Elena said, still holding the reins of the cooperative mare.

"You realize we are in an alternate world now, right?"

"Yes. I admit that. This time we ended up in weirdness together."

"That's a relief. I mean I don't want to have this happen, but at least you didn't disappear this time."

"I didn't last time. You did."

"Okay. Fine. I did." There was no sense in arguing about it.

The two horses quickly finished what they were doing and separated. Damon led his horse away a short distance and got back in the saddle. Elena did the same.

"Stay behind me," he said.

"It wasn't my idea to move ahead. It was hers," Elena grumbled as she followed the two males back toward the carousel.

"Where is the carousel? The damned thing has moved," Damon said, staring ahead toward the area they had come from.

"I can't hear the music any more," Elena agreed. "We're still be in the other dimension or whatever it is."

"Great," Damon snapped.

"How long do you think it will last?" Elena was worried about this strange situation. It was one thing to have Damon dreaming odd happenings, while it was another matter for her to be involved.

"How should I know?" He never knew how long a "dream" lasted.

"You're the one who's been going back and forth in it."

"It's out of my control. I usually just wake up."

"I don't think you're in bed. Me neither. We can't both be dreaming."

"In that case, we're riding these horses in an alternate universe. Which, of course, makes perfect sense to me," he said sarcastically.

"You don't have to get snippy," she said from close behind him. In fact, she was too close. The appaloosa flattened his ears, stopped and let fly a back leg, kicking the pinto in the chest. The mare responded with a squeal, spun around and returned the kick with both her hind legs.

Elena almost fell off, but managed to stay on board as she grabbed a fistful of the horse's mane. She kicked the mare's sides and made her move away from the other horse.

Damon turned his horse sideways to the other. "This is ridiculous!"

"And potentially dangerous," Elena agreed. "Damon, look over there. Isn't that three men on horseback and heading right toward us?"

Damon looked in the direction she indicated and nodded. "Yup. And they don't look happy." The riders in fact were approaching at a gallop. To the amazement of the couple, the three men suddenly stood up on the backs of their mounts. All three men were wearing silver body suits like circus performers.

"Well, isn't that lovely," Damon snarked, hardly believing what he was seeing. Then he reminded himself that this was a strange world, maybe a dream, they were in. "Follow me," he told Elena, and in a moment both of them were riding rapidly away from the three others.

"Maybe these horses belong to them. Maybe the carousel belongs to a circus," Elena called from a short distance behind. She was careful not to have her horse run right up behind the other.

"What?" He couldn't make out what she was saying as the wind whipped by him.

"Never mind," Elena said. She and Damon rode into some woods, following a path. She didn't recall that they had come through this area on the way out.

When they reached a clearing, they saw a log cabin to one side and Damon rode toward it. There was a log corral next to it and he headed for that.

"We'll put the horses there and go into the cabin. If the door has a lock, we may be safe." In a moment they were at the fence, which had an open gate. He rode through and dismounted. Elena came right behind and jumped down from her horse. With barely enough time, they entered the cabin and shut the door. It had a board that went across and served as a lock.

They moved to the front windows which had old, wavy panes of glass. The circus riders came to the corral and dismounted, putting their horses in with the other two. The three men then headed for the cabin.

"Get on the bed," Damon ordered.

"Why? We should be looking for a way to get out the back."

"The bed is safer," Damon insisted. He took her hand and pulled her to the bed, roughly made of boards. A dirty blanket rested on top as well as a couple of dusty, old pillows. As he lifted the blanket, a cloud of dust rose from it. "Lie down."

"This is gross, Damon! And this won't protect us." Nevertheless, she got onto the bed and he lay down beside her. He pulled the nasty blanket up over their heads as if that would hide them.

"I don't know why we are hiding," he muttered. "I could probably whip all three of those guys."

"Maybe. Let's pretend we're asleep," Elena whispered as someone broke the door open. That was followed by a moment of silence, except for a soft tapping sound. Or was there a clock in the room gently ticking? She reached over and took Damon's hand. Somehow it was reassuring that he squeezed it firmly. Then she realized that his hand suddenly felt weird, like made of metal. She turned her head and saw in the dim light that he was dressed in metal from head to foot. He knight in shining armor!

 _A/N Strange happenings! Is anything real? Is there a ticking clock in the room? Thanks for reading, guys._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

If Elena and Damon expected him to rise up and slay the hunters, they were disappointed. Due to the heavy, bulky armor, Elena's knight in shining armor could not get out of bed. Frustrated, he lay still beside the silent woman.

Oddly enough, when the three men came to the door and managed to break it open, they entered and stood in silence too. After a long moment, one of them said, "I know they came in here. Where could they go?"

"There's no back door. I don't see a trap door in the floor. The windows are closed. They've just disappeared," said another.

"Something strange is going on here," the third man said. "I don't like it. Let's get those two horses and head back to the circus."

"Might as well," the first one agreed and they all walked out the door.

Damon and Elena continued to lie under the flimsy blanket. Neither of them could understand why the men had not checked the bed, but it was good that they had not. They heard the men leave on the horses and then there was silence again, except for the faint ticking sound.

Damon found that he could move, that the armor was gone, so he turned onto his side. He didn't feel well because of a headache. From tension, he supposed. He kept his eyes closed and thought he would rest a bit longer before getting up.

"Damon? How do you feel?" Elena asked. She was not in bed.

He opened his eyes and found her standing in front of him. Confused, he looked around without raising his head. He was in their own living room and he was lying on the sofa!

"How do you feel, honey?" Elena asked again, reaching down to feel his forehead.

"I have a headache. How did we get home this time?"

"I drove us home. What did you dream?"

"Just another weird scene. Did we go to the carnival?"

"Yes."

"Did we ride the carousel?"

"Yes. But you said you were getting very dizzy. We got off when it stopped and I held onto you when we walked to the parking lot. Where did you go in the dream if you don't remember our driving home?"

"Our carousel horses came alive and jumped off. Some men on horseback chased us. The usual weird stuff." He groaned as he sat up and the room seemed to sway, but he thought it was real and not part of another "trip." He noticed that there was a glass with some of his bourbon sitting on the end table by the sofa. He reached out, picked it up and took a swallow of it. Excellent quality. There was still some left in the glass when he set it down.

For a long moment there was silence as they each considered the seriousness of the situation.

"Elena, do you hear a faint ticking sound?" he finally asked.

"No," she said after listening carefully. "All I hear is the refrigerator running. Do _you_ hear ticking? A clock?"

"I do hear something. I've heard that sound before."

"If I can't hear it, it must be in your head."

"Maybe. Let me listen to it."

In the silence that followed, he concentrated on the faint sound. "It's not a clock. It's uneven. It almost sounds like someone on a computer keyboard."

"I don't hear it."

"I only hear it in my left ear. That's odd." He touched his left ear, sticking his finger in the ear canal. "I can still hear it in this ear."

"That's odd too," Elena said. She sat down beside him, kissed his cheek and ran her fingers through his dark hair. "Did you hit your head on something?"

"No. Well, only in the dreams. Why?"

"There's a small bump right here. Under your scalp. I wonder what that is."

He reached up and felt around where she was touching. He did feel a small bump. It wasn't sore. "I don't know what that is. Okay, now I hear the sound of the calliope again. It's in my left ear. I didn't realize before that I was hearing it in just one ear."

"Damon, what if it's a tiny microphone someone implanted? Someone may be feeding you the weird stuff through it!"

As if on cue, Damon felt the change, very subtle, but there. Elena was no longer with him. Instead of the living room, he was in an airplane. The people around him were screaming, and he realized that the plane was going down, about to crash. There was nothing any of them could do except brace themselves for impact. He was going to die with all these people! Then there was a loud bang and shaking and more screaming. There was the splash of icy water against his ear. They had crashed into the ocean! He felt a pain by his left ear because he hit his head and something cut him.

"Damon! Can you hear me?" Elena called. "Open your eyes!"

He opened his eyes and found that he was in the living room again and sitting on the sofa. His wife was right beside him. The side of his head was sore. He touched it and his fingers came away with blood on them. Also, his hair was wet and he could smell alcohol. Bourbon, in fact.

"I used your drink as an antiseptic before I nicked your scalp. Look what I have," Elena said, holding up something small in her bloody fingers. In her other hand was a razor blade.

"What is it?" Damon was not sure what his medical student wife had done.

"I don't know, but I just cut it out of your scalp. You were zoned out again, but after I removed it, you came back. This is the cause of your weird imaginings!"

Damon looked at it and swore. "Someone really was messing with my mind using that thing! I'll bet the ticking I was hearing really was a computer keyboard! Someone is out there wondering what happened to the control he had over me."

"I wonder if this is both a microphone and a receiver. Whoever is out there may be listening to what we are saying. Or he may not know you're now disconnected."

"He could even be close enough to watch us. Maybe he even followed us to the carnival. We did go to the carnival, didn't we?"

"Yes. I told you that. Do you think we can find this person?"

"Maybe. Let me think about it. If he realizes you removed the mic, he may leave town. We need a cop to help find him. I think you have saved me from going crazy, my love. I feel normal. I feel free!" He leaned close and gave her a thankful kiss on her lips. She returned it with love.

 _A/N That's it for today. More to come. At least one more chapter_.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Out of curiosity, he took the little item and held it against his scalp near where Elena had removed it. To his surprise, he immediately felt a response. He briefly saw himself in the water with the other passengers of the downed plane. He was unaware that Elena reached over and moved his hand from against his head. He was suddenly back in the living room.

"You were 'zoned out' again."

"He's still working it. He doesn't know I'm disconnected," he told his wife.

"You reconnect when you put the thing against your head. Don't do it any more."

He laid the thing on the coffee table and took his cell phone from his pocket. He had not thought of using it when he was in some of the dreams. The person harassing him probably had not let him think of it. Now, he phoned his friend in the police department and started the action that he hoped would capture the trouble-maker.

"Do you want to go out and look for him? He must not be far from here," Elena said.

Damon's desire was to find the person and to beat him to a pulp, but he said they should wait until the cop was in the vicinity. He picked up the little device and put it against his head again.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to see if we are all drowning or not."

He quickly learned that he and many other passengers were swimming to a nearby island. Short of breath and cold and wet, he crawled on hands and knees to the beach.

Elena snatched the troublesome thing from his hand as she saw his facial expression go blank. "Stop it, Damon! I don't care if you think you are drowning. You are not drowning! You are right here with me. Are you getting addicted to these crazy experiences?"

"No. I don't think so. Well, maybe. If you saw yourself in a plane crash and swimming for the beach, wouldn't you want to know that you made it? Like reading a good book. Wouldn't you want to know the survivors made it?" he argued.

"That's different and you know it! I wouldn't get trapped in the situation. I could put the book down."

"And go back to it later because you would want to know who survived," Damon pointed out.

"Yes, but it's still different. I wonder if I can hear him." She pressed the unit against her scalp behind her ear. She heard a voice. Like someone reading her a book, but she didn't get projected into the scene. Removing the device, she told him this. "He somehow has control over you. Or he did have when this was in your scalp."

"I have no memory of him putting the device in," Damon said, shaking his head. "Whenever that happened, he erased the memory."

Charlie, the policeman he had called, came to the back door of the house just in case the harasser was watching the house. Charlie listened to the story and then left by the back door, taking the worrisome unit with him in a plastic bag. Following his orders, Damon and Elena stayed in the house, even though Damon really wanted to go hunting. He was furious over what had been happening and he now paced back and forth in the living room. He looked out through the sheer drapes of the window that faced the street, knowing he could not be seen. However, he was not able to spot any suspicious vehicle parked on the street.

After a while, and after a shot of bourbon, he gave a start when his phone rang. The report he got was good news. Charlie and his partner had found and surprised the wanted man in a van parked at the end of the block. They arrested him after he burst out the side door and tried to run away. He foolishly carried a knife and when he tripped and fell, the knife was driven into his chest. Charlie told Damon the man was on his way to a hospital in an ambulance.

"The knife is still in his chest. It may be in his heart," Charlie said. "So, he may not make it. His I.D. says he is Brody Webster. Know him?"

"Yes, from some years ago. As far as I know, he has been in prison for experimenting on people. Brilliant man, but not right in the head. He hurt my brother, so I helped catch him. I guess that's a good reason for him to do what he's been doing to me. I'm surprised he's out on the streets again."

"He was released two weeks ago. Look, I'll let you know if he survives the surgery."

"Thanks. Please do. Personally, I hope he dies."

As it turned out, Damon got his wish. Brody Webster died that night and Damon smiled with satisfaction when he heard the news. Nevertheless, it took him several nights to get some normal sleep, because he kept remembering scenes from the episodes. He woke more than once to be sure he was really in bed with Elena beside him.

In addition, neither of them visited the public library for a week, nor did they check out the carnival again before it left town. They assumed all the horses were in their proper place. Damon also had to assume that the people who survived the plane crash were rescued. He didn't tell Elena that it was still on his mind, but he found that the false memories were fading away, which was a relief. By the time another week passed, all was normal again for Damon and Elena Salvatore.

 _A/N This is the last chapter of this story. It was kind of weird. I hope you all found it interesting. I'll write another story if I can think of one. Any ideas?_


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